Monday, January 11, 2010

All of Wikipedia on Google Maps

The Full Wiki is a great attempt to map all of Wikipedia using Google Maps.

'So what?' I hear you ask. Wikipedia already lets you view locations on maps and Google Maps also has a Wikipedia layer so that you can look up information about locations directly on the map.

However, The Full Wiki is different because it maps all the locations mentioned in a Wikipedia entry. So, for example, if you look up '1945' in The Full Wiki all the locations mentioned in the entry are mapped. So you can see at a glance all the major events of 1945 directly on a Google Map.

The map and the article are linked throughout. Click on a map marker and it jumps to that part of the article. Click on an article marker and it will show you that location on the map.

Here's another great example. Look up The Renaissance in The Full Wiki and you can read about this cultural movement in its historical context and the accompanying map gives its geographical context.

Some more examples:

Ferdinand Magellan got around a bit. Now you can see where he explored during his travels.

Barack Obama has the most international background of any recent US president. See it mapped.

This is definitely one Google Maps mashup that I can see myself using on a daily basis.Also See

Wikimapia - Wikimapia is an online editable map - you can describe any place on Earth or just surf the map to discover information about the locations that interest you.